Vishnu
by Eleventh Messenger
Summary: The TSAB has come and gone, but like the lost logia they sought to restrain, remnants linger on. Collaborative sequel project to Grand Phoenix's Shiva. Read it first.
1. Prologue - Beneath the Night Sky

**Prologue**

**Beneath the Night Sky**

"Someone got here first, sir."

_"What do you mean, agent?"_

"It's like a bomb went off in here, except the building's still standing. Transmitting video feed now."

Lockheed raised his device, a viewscreen appearing above his other hand to show him what the optical array mounted on the pistol's barrel was recording. The bunker was _wrecked_. Cracks spread like black, crumbling spiderwebs between head-sized holes in the reinforced concrete walls, testament to the sheer power of the projectiles that had impacted against them; projectiles they had to be, as sheer magic damage would have vaporized the objects struck instead of leaving debris.

Turning to survey the bunker's entrance, Lockheed made certain to record the state of the foot-thick steel door, which was battered and mangled so badly that it had been torn completely free of the frame, moonlight spilling through the gap. The disabled cutter outside had gone down before half of its 60 meter length had even cleared the doors of the camouflaged hanger bay, its engines smashed to pieces by physical assault, the hull holed and breached. Still, the ship had been intact enough for him to identify. _Chance's Bastard _had been infamous in local space for all of the worst reasons. Assassinations, piracy, extortion; there wasn't a job that the ship's crew would turn down.

_Not anymore, though._ He turned back around, aiming his device past the shattered barricades and furniture, at the broken bodies behind them. He picked his way through the carnage, scanning the device around as he stepped through the first interior chokepoint. "Sled. Estimate times of death?"

The viewscreen over his wrist flashed, gridding the dozen bodies in red lines as information scrolled rapidly through the field. "Confirmed. Cessation of organized metabolic function occurred approximately two point three hours ago, over a three minute period."

_Sankt Kaiser_. "You get that, command?"

_"Copy, agent. Sensors are picking up no other lifesigns or active energy signatures. Continue your investigation."_

"Yes, sir."

* * *

He found the rest of the _Bastard's_ crew in short order, dead where they fought. Most of the bodies suffered from similar wounds, either blunt force trauma from what appeared to have been a solid sphere less than two inches around, or a flat impact no larger than his clenched fist. A few, however, had been ripped clean through, blood and gore scattered in wide arcs from the halved torsos. It was around these messier, bloodier corpses that Lockheed found the footprints.

Lockheed stepped wide around the shattered remnants of mage devices and bloody remains while Sled recorded the information and ran through calculations. A wireframe model formed on the screen, matching the size and gait required to make the bloody trail of prints. "A _child_ did this."

Sled beeped once. "Unconfirmed. An individual between one point two and one point three meters tall is responsible for the footsteps." Lockheed shook his head, following the trail to the far wall of the bunker. The footsteps stopped there, thick and congealed and surrounded in fallen droplets, as though whatever made them simply vanished into thin air and left the blood behind.

Something made him look at the wall itself, Sled helpfully providing a lightsource. Carved into the very concrete, waist-height, were words, a language that he recognized but didn't understand. "This is ancient Belkan."

_"Confirmed. Translating."_

_So the sun must rise, so the sun must set_

_Beneath the night sky, all things come to light_

_Beware, should the darkness choose to shine upon you_

* * *

"What do we have, agent?"

Lockheed looked up from his holoscreen, where Lockheed was displaying the results of its forays into the fragmented memory core recovered from one of the bodies of the _Bastard's _crew. "Not very much, Captain. I'm relatively certain that this device belonged to the pirates' leader, but there's a lot of physical violation to the components. I can't even tell what the active form was supposed to be." He tapped in a few commands, and expanded the holoscreen for Captain Scryer's ease of perusal. "If I had to guess, I'd say he tried to parry whatever killed him. Didn't work, obviously."

Scryer leaned forward, glancing over the screen. "Is there anything of use?"

Lockheed nodded, pointing at a string of numbers. "I'm pretty sure these are dimensional coordinates, as well as planetary. Not any particular format that I recognize, though."

The captain narrowed his eyes, reading the numbers. "...outdated is right. I know this format. It dates back to the Wardens."

That comment made Lockheed's head snap back around, looking up at Scryer. "Are you _sure_, Captain? The Wardens collapsed almost ten thousand years ago."

"My family is full of history buffs, Lockheed. I grew up studying the Wardens, and I know these coordinates. It was the center of their empire." Scryer straightened, tapping his wrist-comm. "Ensign Renault? Set course for Mid-childa."


	2. Chapter One - Stand By, Ready

_"Ten thousand years. Not too long for a rest cure, whether you're the one who wakes the dead, or the one who's woken."_

_-Attributed to Nanoha Takamachi _

**Chapter One**

**Stand By, Ready**

The girl ran. She could hear them behind her, the shouts and calls from her pursuers as they gave chase. Their voices echoed through the trees as her toes dug into the loam, struggling for traction.

_I have to escape! Have to get away! I can't let them use me!_

Her bare, abused feet kicked up twigs and leaves, each pained footfall leaving its mark in blood behind her. But when she fell, it wasn't the pain from her feet that forced her to the ground. White-hot agony flared into her mind, crawling in blazing pins and needles down her neck, taking root deep in her chest. She screamed, clawing at her forehead, nails scraping bloody furrows into her brow, but she couldn't rid herself of her tormentor.

The burning in her chest reached a crescendo. Her back arched forward as a horrid choking fit overtook her, spasms wracking her to her hands and knees. She coughed weakly as the fit passed, struggling back to her feet and staggering on. The voices were closer now.

_I have to run! Faster, like a bird, like lightning!_

She ran on, the marks of her passing left behind in bloody footprints. Where she had fallen, a small sphere remained behind, glowing with green malevolence.

Waiting.

* * *

"Whisk, did you find her?"

Whisk didn't turn around, still staring at where the green glow had sunk into his right hand. He heard footsteps approaching behind him, dry leaves crunching underfoot as his squad leader ran up. "Whisk, what is it? The boss is gonna give us -hell- if she got away! Did you find her?"

"No, I did not. I will keep looking. She cannot stay out here." _It is not safe for her._

A hand grabbed his shoulder. "Hey, snap out of it. We gotta get moving and bring her back."

Whisk turned around to look at the hand's owner. Borent had been his commanding officer ever since he'd joined up with the mercenary group, some five years ago. Everything he had learned about the job had been from Borent's mouth, under Borent's guidance. Whisk owed almost everything in his life to the man for taking him in. "No. We will protect her, Borent."

"The hell are you talking abou-" Those five years of guidance didn't stop Whisk from flowing his right arm into a metal blade, shoving it up underneath Borent's ribcage to pierce his heart. The spike exploded outward into a fascimile of a hand, ripping his superior's organs to shreds.

His former life died in front of him, impaled on his arm. It mattered not. All that mattered was _her_. Whisk opened his mouth, spitting a glowing green sphere into his free hand and placing it against the corpse's chest. It sunk in without a sound, and by the time he pulled his right arm free, the body was standing on its own.

Borent's eyes met Whisk's, blank understanding in his gaze. "The rest of the squad will try to return her to the lab."

"We will stop them. She must be kept safe."

"She must be kept safe."

* * *

She ran on. The trees had given way to a rugged field, long and narrow and bordered on both sides by jagged, broken cliffs. Twice she had fallen in agony, her body's renegade processes forcing up her purpose, and those glowing spheres were clutched tightly in her hands as she tore through the waist-high grass. She had already left one behind, and felt it activate. Could feel it even now, as it spread out into a dozen hosts, following her with the relentless strength of machines.

Machines, or the dead. _I won't let them use me! Never again!_

Her last awakening, however long ago, had been the first time she had ever felt hope. She remembered blue hair and a kind smile, being held in strong arms. Hearing a beating heart under the whir of damaged servos, the smell of blood and ozone. _"Of course you can change your purpose. I was made for war, but I save lives now. Even the Sankt Kaiser has changed who she is."_

Teeth gritted, every forced stride on the torn ribbons of her soles putting tears in her eyes, she pushed herself further, faster than before. The glow from her forehead flared with each panting breath; a sharp, clean light in contrast to the greasy luminance coming from the marble-sized orbs she clutched. Her eyes were half-shut from exhaustion, and she never saw the ground fall away underneath her feet.

She yelped as she fell, red hair streaming behind her like the tail of a comet, before the curved wall of the massive crater swept underneath her like a demented playground slide. She tumbled, scrabbling for purchase but finding none as she rolled over the ancient, glassy surface.

A pained groan worked its way past her lips when she finally cape to a stop. Just as she tried to stand back up, the white _fire _burned through her again. A gurgling wail burst forth, bloodied froth accompanying yet another green core as it fell from her mouth and clinked against the ground.

They were closer. She felt the first one leap over the edge of the cliff, plummeting after her, eating up the distance with voracious appetite. She scooped up the sphere, staggering to her feet and running on. She could see something in the distance, tall and white and pure, something that promised an end to this terrible hunt. She could hear that voice in her mind as clearly as if it was yesterday, urging her onward, lending her faltering steps strength.

She beat them to it, for what it was worth. But it wasn't salvation of any sort. It wasn't a bastion to hide inside. There were no doors, no windows. An ivory pillar stretched to the sky above, tall and solid and _useless _to her. She sagged to her knees, trying to ignore the approaching footsteps of her pursuers. _Guardians._ _Jailors. Puppets, whose strings I cannot pull._

There was something at the base of the obelisk. A plaque, darkened by dust and grime. She reached forward with a trembling hand, wiping away the accumulation of the ages. Licked her dry lips, murmuring the words.

"Not all devils are evil, not all kings men of prosper." W_ould that the aid of a devil could save this miserable king from herself._

Her eyes squeezed shut. A shifting of metal and flesh behind her; her pursuers, as one, kneeling down. She hardly heard it, remembering the voice of her savior of old. _Of course you can change your purpose._

Forcing herself to her feet one last time, Ixpellia cast a hateful glare back at her Mariage, before hurling the three cores birthed of her own essence at the obelisk. They shattered in bursts of sickly-green smoke, wisping away into the wind as the wayward Flame King of Hades backed away from her own creations. They rose as one, reaching for her as she screamed.

* * *

She drifted.

There was no past to remember, no future to concern her. There was just the moment.

She drifted, feeling the ebb and flow of the sea around her, through her, beyond.

Nothing touched her. Nothing bothered her. She was at rest.

She drifted.

Something touched her mind. She shifted, relaxed. There was nothing here.

It touched her again. She ignored it, but it lingered, like an itch. She found herself worrying at it, like she would press her tongue into the gap of a missing tooth when she-

_When I...? When I what?_

_What am I?_

She no longer drifted. Something had caught hold, roused her. She floundered, searching for...

_For what? What am I missing? Who am I? Why am I here?_

Alarm. There was no longer calm. She reached out, and found nothing when there should be something. Found she had nothing to reach with. Alarm became panic. _This isn't right! This isn't what I'm supposed to be! Where am I? Where is everyone?!_

She wanted to scream, but she had no lungs with which to draw breath. She wanted to cry, but she had no eyes with which to shed tears. The empty sea, so long her comfort, began to strangle her, dragging her under.

She flailed without arms, feeling the miasma claiming her... and just before she was lost, she felt it.

_"Initialize Protector Program: God-Devil In White."_

A beacon.

A friend.

She knew this presence. It had been with her for so long that it was part of her. Before, and even now, even in this nothingness. She clung to it, feeling the first wave of warmth flooding through her.

A pulse against her very soul, burning away the fear, bringing clarity in its wake.

A voice in her mind. Her friend, her comrade, her _sister-in-arms. _"_Distress signal received. She needs our help."_

Such a simple phrase. But it woke the last remnants of her dormant mind, reminded her of who she was. What she was born to do.

"Then we can't stand around and do nothing, can we?" She laughed, feeling the answering surge from her companion, her heart.

_"Stand by. Ready."_

* * *

Ixpellia fought. There was power at her fingertips like she'd never felt before, that sharp glow on her forehead flaring when she drew on that alien strength, and her magic surging in response. Glass cracked, and chains erupted from solid ground to wind around the first of the Mariage as they reached for her, chains made of smoke and fire and her own desperate fear. A shove at the air sent forth a wave of force that knocked more of the dead men off their feet. Ixpellia felt her back press against the ivory monument, struggling to draw forth more power to throw at them.

It wouldn't come, instead pain flared through her veins. Offensive magic was never her forte, and even bolstered by that strange light, she just wasn't _skilled_ enough to make use of it. The Mariage regained their feet, tore free from their binds. Ixpellia's legs gave out in dejected misery, leaving her curled at the very base of the obelisk. The one in front moved closer, opening a metal-etched hand and reaching for her. She looked away. _Not like this. Not again, please! Help me! Anyone!_

Thunder, from a cloudless sky. She could feel it in her bones, in her mind, resonating through her stuttering magic. The world grew dark and muted around her, around the Mariage, around the obelisk itself, as if all of the light and color and even sound were being consumed. Green mist started flowing back in, the pall from her shattered cores being pulled toward a single point.

Ixpellia realized that the hand never reached her. She looked up, sharply. There was a single place of color left in the world, a blazing red point of light hovering just above the Mariage's arm. Nothing was moving, all attention drawn to that bright star.

The Mariage's arm contorted, indentations compacting its metal-and-flesh like it was made of putty. The star flared, solidifying into a garnet pearl surrounded by a corona of pink. The pink spread down and out, expanding and defining into the shape of a hand, clamped tightly around the Mariage's wrist. Spreading further, the glow revealed an arm, a shoulder. The Mariage tried to pull free, but it was as if a giant had grabbed hold of it.

The outline of the body completed, a female figure cut out of the air in pink. The outstretched hand flexed, and the shell of energy started to crack and shatter away, revealing the living body underneath. Brilliant purple eyes opened, then fixed on Ixpellia for an instant. The woman smiled.

"It's okay. You're safe now."

* * *

She made it just in time. The slip of a girl cowered back against the strange ivory pillar, torn feet leaving crimson stains on the ground, but she was otherwise unharmed. She turned her eyes toward the _thing _she still had hold of, and felt the deformed material of its skin start to shift underneath her hand.

_Mariage. _Nanoha let go just as spikes erupted from the creature's wrist, forcing it off the monument's pedestal with a shove of magic. There were a dozen of them in front of her, nearly identical in size and shape, no longer recognizable except for the fact that they had once been male. Only the one in front seemed different; larger and more menacing. They started to advance, a bewildering assortment of blades and spikes issuing forth from their limbs.

She'd read the reports. It wouldn't do to engage the beings in close-combat. "Raging Heart, shooting mode!" She held out her hands to grab the staff when it appeared.

The garnet gem _set into the back of her hand_ pulsed. _"Negative, my Master. Mode format incompatibility."_

"You're kidding me!" Nanoha threw up her other hand, a hastily formed barrier blocking the first attacks, throwing the corpses back again. "What can we do?"

_"Stand by. Repurposing hardware. Skirmish mode activated."_

Raging Heart's components phased in around her, forming armored gauntlets. The white plates floated and shifted an inch above her skin, pink lightning crackling between gold discharge leads. A half-dozen small, white-and-gold shields spun around her, ready to intercept any incoming attack.

"...I guess this will have to do. Close combat was always Fate's thing, though." She felt her throat close a little, like it always did when she remembered.

_"Sorry, my Master. Core placement is an issue."_ The synthetic tones sounded a little sheepish.

That was all the time there was to talk. The Mariage surged forward, shattering her barrier. With a last glance at the trembling girl behind her, the Ace of Aces threw herself out to meet them, determined to keep them away from her.

A hand with knives for fingers plunged toward her chest, and she punched it aside hard enough to shatter the metal blades, spinning the Mariage around and opening it up for her follow-up strike. Her fist broke clean through its chest, and the entire body started to _melt_ right in front of her.

_"Layer purge." _The crackling skin of energy over her gauntlet pulsed out, pushing back the oily mass and letting her leap back just before it burst into flames. The rest of them didn't give her time to recover, blades stabbing in from all sides.

The world collapsed inwards to the life-and-death struggle, a bare ten meters of space in which she leapt about like a demented dervish, crushingly-enhanced strikes punishing the Mariage with every impact. Still, melee was not her forte, and the weight of numbers began to show.

Ducking under the sweep of a blade, the edge still caught the trail of her hair _why is it untied_ and yanking her head sharply to the side before cutting through. Pulled off balance, she wasn't able to twist away from another sword diving in toward her abdomen. One of Raging Heart's shields cut across, sacrificing itself to deflect the blow, but the blade still cut a line across her side.

Nanoha dropped to one knee, gathering magic and slamming it into the ground, the dome-like shockwave pushing the Mariage back long enough for her to leap away again. She glanced down in consternation at the wound, realizing that instead of a proper barrier jacket she was clad in a simple white tunic, which, judging by the blood dripping down her side, was as flimsy as it looked. "Raging Heart, where's my barrier jacket?!"

_"Sorry, my Master! Storage corruption. Barrier Jacket program nonfunctional."_

She didn't have the luxury of time to curse. As the Mariage closed in, she managed to throw up a mass binding, wrapping it around half their remaining number as she felt the harsh pull of the spell on her Linker Core. The other four reached her, slashing with their bladed arms in perfect synchronization as she fought back. She managed to take two more of them down by the time the rest broke free, but earned herself a crisscross of gashes that had blood running freely down her back.

A double-fisted hammerblow dropped one hard enough to crater the glassy ground, the Mariage splatting into tar and bursting into flames. Nanoha stumbled back from the conflagration as Raging Heart intercepted two more thrusts, shards of gold and white composite raining down around her. She threw up her arms to try to catch the next blade, only to find her attacker _yanked _away, flaming chains wrapping around its throat and arms. A glance over her shoulder showed the girl standing again, a searing white glow under her bangs illuminating a mask of pained concentration. She took the opportunity presented and struck the corpse's head from its shoulders during the brief respite, before the rest closed in.

One by one, they managed to wear the Mariage down. Nanoha was covered in cuts and burns, one gauntlet shattered, her hovering shields scattered in pieces across the field, and the girl behind her was collapsed onto the ground, holding her head in agony. She turned toward the last Mariage, and realized that this one had kept back from the fray the entire time, observing from dozens of feet away. Now it raised one arm, and Nanoha watched it shift and contort, the fingers molding together and the palm deepening. "You will replace those you have destroyed, interloper." A barrel as wide as a cannon aligned on her.

There was no way to close the distance in time. "Raging Heart, do we have any shooting magics left?"

_"He needs to cool his head, my master. I can be shot!"_

There was an audible _thunk_ of a round being chambered in the Mariage's arm. Nanoha grinned, snapping up her left hand and pointing. Set into the back of her hand, Raging Heart flared. Six pink orbs flared into being around her wrist in an instance, charging. "Crossfire shoot!"

The orbs discharged, spiraling around the beam of light from her finger and lancing across the gap just as the round fired from the Mariage's arm. Pink energy met explosive metal just as it left the barrel, detonating it in a flash and blowing the Mariage's arm clean off.

Nanoha didn't give it time to recover, invoking a second shot that punched through its chest like a rifle round through a rotted apple, and the last Mariage melted like wax before bursting into white flames.

* * *

Ixpellia felt the command unit die, the shock of it making her eyes open again. Her savior turned toward her, still standing but heavily favoring one leg, and limped toward her. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay? You're bleeding! All over!" Ixpellia forced herself to her feet, running over to put an arm around the woman, helping her to the steps leading up to the monument. "S-sit down, I'll... uhm. Bandages, there's got to be something I can..."

_"Sorry, my Master. No healing spells in memory."_

Her voice was pained, but _weak. _"Do what you have to do, Raging Heart."

_"Cauterize."_

The woman hissed as pink outlined her injuries, arching her back as the cuts sizzled briefly. It stopped just as suddenly as it started, and she sagged. Ixpellia found herself staring at the woman's face. "...I know you...?"

Purple eyes met bright green in brief confusion, and then the woman laughed weakly. "Nyaha...ha. I didn't... make the connection until just now. Those were the Mariage. You've grown, Ixy."

The laugh was what did it, more than anything else. Ixpellia realized who had saved her, finding it disconcerting that she was nearly as tall. "You're Vivio's mother. Nanoha."

Nanoha didn't respond, at first. Instead she stared at Ixpellia's forehead as if she'd grown a third eye. "...what is that, Ixy?"

Ixpellia flinched, reaching up to rub the smooth, hard lump. "I don't know. It's been... fueling me. I've been producing Mariage cores. Not as... quickly as I did before, but..."

The Ace of Aces grimaced, reaching up to brush Ixpellia's bangs aside. The light pulsed softly, and Nanoha's expression darkened. "You have a Jewel Seed embedded in your forehead, Ixpellia."


	3. Chapter Two - So It Goes

"_War never changes; only the methods to its madness and the people that utilize them do. But this War…it's like the Warring Ages all over again. You can't escape the past. Doesn't matter where you look or what you say about it. It's starin' right at us, and we're forced to stare right back."_

_-Vita of the Wolkenritter to Takamachi Vivio, in the year 0086_

**Chapter Two**

**So It Goes**

"A…Jewel Seed?" Was that what it was called?

Nanoha nodded. "Yeah. It's a Lost Logia that contains a tremendous amount of power. Used to hunt for them way back when I was a kid." Her fingers grazed the risen area of skin. "I never thought I'd get to see one again."

Ixpellia closed her eyes, savoring the older woman's touch: slow, careful, warm. _A far cry from the kind of devil I had imagined. _She flinched at a pulse flaring sharply in her temples and stumbled.

Nanoha stopped and caught her by the shoulders. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"I'm…I'm okay. It just…hurts a little. Sometimes it's worse." So much she wanted to dig her nails and claw it out, pry it from its bed of warm blood and frayed flesh and throw it as far away from her as she could. Thinking about it hurt, and the hurt made her feel sick and faint and raw like her throat, so she cast those thoughts aside. "I'll be fine."

"You don't look too good," said Nanoha. "Maybe you should lie down."

"Not here," Ixpellia shook her head. "I don't sense any more Mariages, but"—she looked at the puddles of napalm on the ground, still and stagnant—"anywhere is better than here."

Nanoha understood. She took the girl in her arms and held her, hoping for the pain she was going through would pass. Looking down on her, she took note of Raging Heart's ruby body nestled snug in the back of her hand. How did it get there and when did it happen? Why wasn't she able to call up her spells and Barrier Jacket when she needed them the most? She shifted the weight on her leg, relieving it of the pressure she was putting on it. This wasn't right. She shouldn't be aching this badly.

"Is there any place we can go and rest, Raging Heart?" she asked. "Somewhere close by?"

"_Loading local map, please stand by."_ A moment passed. There was a disappointed flicker of light as it returned. "_I'm sorry, my Master, most of the map did not load properly. Data corruption is likely. Shall I refresh?"_

How deep did that corruption run? "No, leave it. What do you see?"

"_There are woods to the north of our location. Deep within is a river to gather water, a thick copse to chop wood, and plenty of wildlife to hunt for food. Let us go there!"_

"Sounds ideal. Ixy, do you mind if I carry you? It'll be a short trip if I fly us there. That way I can tend to both our injuries." She studied the girl's dirty, bloodied feet and felt a pang of sympathy for her. _She's been running. How much ground did she cover to get them that way?_

"_Be careful, my Master. You are very low on mana."_

She sighed. "Even that? Well, it should be enough to get us there. Are you ready, Ixy?"

"Yes, ma'am, whenever you are."

Nanoha hefted Ixpellia into her arms and activated Axel Fin on the way down the steps. Just as she was about to take off, she turned around and stared up at the obelisk. High above them it loomed, reaching into the heavens, beaten by weather and time but still standing strong as the day it was built.

In the back of her mind, something stirred. _I know this place._ Somehow, in some way, it resonated within her, like the last missing piece in a puzzle. _But how is that possible? I've never been here before…._

"Nanoha?" Ixpellia asked. The attentiveness in those bluish-purple eyes was intense. What was it about this strange monument that captivated her? What about it drew her here, in this crater of all places?

The person in question started, woken from her reverie. "Oh! Sorry, it's nothing. Let's get going."

* * *

They touched down in the area shortly thereafter. By then Nanoha's mana was running dangerously low, exacerbating the weariness gnawing away at the edges of her Linker Core. There was a fallen tree whose roots were splayed over the space where the ground plunged in a sharp decline towards the sounds of gurgling water. It was here Ixpellia was placed, her back to the sturdy wood.

"Thank you," she said. "I don't think I would've been able to stay on my feet much longer."

"You just sit there and relax," Nanoha told her. "This place seems pretty quiet, so I don't expect there to be any wild animals roaming about. I'll go a little ways out, see if I can scrounge together some stuff to tide us over and treat our wounds."

"That's fine. It'll…be some time before I produce another core." She put a hand to her throat. "I don't know how, but…the time between each production has gotten shorter."

"How soon should we expect another core?"

"Not within the next hour, that's for sure. But…I feel it'll happen sooner rather than later. At least if I fall asleep my body won't be able to produce, but as soon as I wake up…." She shook her head. "I can't have them lying around."

"Good idea. I don't know how far we are from the nearest town, but we wouldn't want anyone to be picking these up. Best hang on to them." She stood up and dusted off her tunic. "I won't be gone long. If you need me for anything, give me a holler."

The sun descended and the light slowly drained from the sky. Nanoha made several trips throughout the woods, slowly accumulating necessary supplies. A campfire was erected and rabbit carcasses skewered above the licking flames. Plants were crushed to paste and made into poultices to apply to Ixpellia's feet and her own cuts. Thick branches were sheared and hollowed to collect water.

When all was completed, and the rabbits were turning a savory brown, Nanoha sat down. Ixpellia stirred, emerging from a spell of deep slumber. She rubbed a hand across her eyes.

Nanoha smiled. "Hey. Sleep well?"

"Mmm, yes." She stretched an arm above her head and yawned. "Something smells good."

"It's rabbit. Should be about ready to eat." She plucked the branch from the fire and touched it, then recoiled. "Best let them cool off first, nyahaha."

They ate in silence. The first stars in the sky appeared as diamond-like pinpricks. There was the faint trill of birdsong, heralding the night. Grasshoppers rubbed their legs together, far and apart and somehow very close by.

Fresh wood was fed for the fire, renewing the nimbus of light encircling them. Ixpellia drank the last of the water in her stub of branch and set it down beside her. "It's so quiet," she said. "To be honest, it's almost…surreal? Yes, very surreal." She drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them. "Back then, during the Unification War, the world was full of sounds. We barely had time to catch our breaths or a moment of peace. It wouldn't last long, not when you can hear the screams of the wounded and dying from your place in bed or out on the field in a tent, but…even then, for me, I found it hard to enjoy. Silence, on Galea, meant something was about to happen."

Nanoha looked up from her place, her face awash in flickering orange and red. Something about the way the flames danced in her eyes told Ixpellia she was not paying attention, not necessarily ignoring her but detached enough to be immersed in her own thoughts. "The Mariage?"

Ixpellia did not respond. She watched a piece of bark whiten and curl at the ends.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to…you know…."

"It's alright. It's in the past. Except…sometimes I wish I could stop producing cores altogether. That's another thing that bothers me; I don't even know how or why I am this way. My body is of flesh but the rest of me, the ability to build cores off the energy inside me, is almost like that of a machine. A _battery_."

"Did you ever look into it?"

"I remember some instances when the fighting had died down, but everything after that is all muddled." She touched her fingers to the makeshift poultice on a foot and slid them along her heel, round her ankle, and up her leg. "I don't _feel_ like a machine. Machines don't have blood. So what does that make me?"

"You're you, Ixy," Nanoha said, and smiled. "My mana is powerful and very destructive, but I'm very much human and most certainly not the demon the mages at the Navy make me out to be. No horns or tail on me, I think that'd frighten folks even more." She bowed her head, lifting the rabbit to her lips. "Don't worry, Ixy. I'm sure there's something we can do about those cores."

"Do you think so?"

"It's possible." Nanoha tore a chunk of meat, chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed. "Cranagan got hit pretty hard during the War. I'm still surprised the Großartig Kaiser didn't target it from the very beginning."

"Wait," Ixpellia perked up, "what war?"

"The Great War. You were still asleep when it started." Nanoha stared at the rabbit, now all bones and bloody organs, then tossed the skewer into the fire. She leaned back on one hand, the other with Raging Heart thrown across a leg. "It was eight years ago. I was getting ready to punch out at work when Hayate called me to see her at once. You've heard of her, right?" Ixpellia nodded. "I hadn't seen Vivio since early morning and I wanted to leave, but she said it was important and couldn't be ignored. So I got there as fast as I could, and when I did I asked her what was wrong."

Her eyes hardened, or maybe they softened? From this angle Ixpellia could not tell. "My friend, Fate, was killed in an ambush on a charter ship heading for Mid. Her, and everybody onboard…by the time they realized what was going on it was too late. They didn't stand a chance. Someone managed to send out a distress signal before the vessel was destroyed. Maybe it'd been Fate, maybe it was someone else. There had been attacks in dimensional space going on for months…but that act…that was the last straw. In a matter of days, the Bureau declared war on the Großartig Kaiser." She sighed. "Eight years of my life, fighting, without my best friend at my side. All because of that…_pretender_."

"Who was the Großartig Kaiser?"

"Just a punk. I didn't care if the bastard was a clone like Vivio or a real King like you. All that mattered was keeping Fate's memory alive long enough for me to run Raging Heart through that dark heart." She lifted her bejeweled hand and clenched it tight. "And I did."

"I'm sorry," Ixpellia said, and meant it. She wanted to say more, but she could not bring them to bear. Her gaze, her posture, the cold steel lining her voice, it would not be enough, and she let it be.

"Thank you," said Nanoha, and she was quiet.

Minutes passed. Ixpellia moved to supply wood to the fire, but Nanoha shook her head and gestured for her to remain seated. So she did.

"If…you don't mind me asking," Ixpellia began, "where else did this Großartig Kaiser attack? If Cranagan wasn't considered an important target, surely he…or she…struck elsewhere. When I went to sleep, was I in any danger?"

Nanonha pondered this for a moment. "As far as I can recall, you weren't. We had your body placed in the Grand Cathedral for about…six years. When the Großartig Kaiser's army breached through Mid's planetary defenses and St. Hilde's Academy was bombed, the Church moved you to an undisclosed location, fearing it would come under attack. It did…but by that time you were long gone." She smiled mirthlessly. "I think the faker was looking for you; what for is anybody's guess. At least, that's what I heard. Most of the stuff you hear on the front lines is rumors and heresy."

"What about Vivio? What about Subaru? What else happened while I was asleep?" There were so many questions she wanted to ask!

But she could see the weariness on her face and the discomfort showed as she fidgeted. "It's getting late," she said. "Get some sleep. I'll take watch."

"Aren't you tired?"

"I'll be alright."

There would be no arguing with her, so Ixpellia threw her spit into the fire and spread out on the grass. The last thing shesaw before darkness took her was Nanoha with her neck craned back, staring up into the open canvas of heaven.

* * *

Nanoha watched the rise and fall of Ixpellia's chest, the easiness in which she breathed and how still she lay. Even outside the cycle of hibernation, she slept like the dead, befitting her title from an age long past.

"She reminds me of Vivio, you know," she told Raging Heart. "On those days where Nove pushed her and the kids through grueling exercises and training regimens, especially before the Intermiddle, she was out right away. Sometimes I went into her room and stayed there for a while because she hardly ever moved."

"_We raised her well,"_ said Raging Heart.

"Indeed, and all that hard work kept her alive during the War. Even after St. Hilde was destroyed and she was in ICU, she still kept fighting. I wonder if she's alright."

"_I am sure she is."_

"Well, actually, she should be. She was stationed in Cranagan when we launched the assault on the Großartig Kaiser's keep. Do you think she'll still be mad at me when I come back?"

"_There is no doubt in my systems, my Master!"_

"Nyahaha, that's what I thought. But I know she'll forgive me; war can drive a person to great and, quite often, very crazy things."

"_Your charge was very suicidal."_

"I was ready to die…but not before I took the fool King with me. That much I had to do, for Fate's sake. For everyone who died."

The firewood hissed and popped. The river chuckled, and there was a splash as something broke its surface.

Quietly, Nanoha got to her feet. After checking there was enough wood to keep the fire going and Ixpellia was still asleep, she made for the tree line.

"_Where are you going?"_ asked Raging Heart.

"There's something I need to see," she answered.

When she was well into the forest, she drew on the ambient magic in the air to support the low mana in her Linker Core and activated Axel Fin. The sky rushed to embrace her, and her heart soared to reciprocate. She realized it was the first time she had flown like so—among the stars and the great, panoramic black of night—since the War began. No errant spells. No gunfire. No warships. No mages picked off by enemy turrets and falling to their deaths. It was wide and void and at peace.

The obelisk loomed ahead, a stark white exclamation point in the middle of the land. Nanoha descended in an avian glide and landed short of the steps. She climbed them and stopped before it.

"_Master?"_

"Hush," she said. She got down on one knee. The plaque was dusty and grimy and cracked in places, spotted in fingerprints and smeared by someone's hand. _Did Ixy do this?_ Nanoha wiped the gunk away and ran a hand along the tunic to be rid of it.

What she saw shocked her. "What the…?" There were words, and they read as such:

TAKAMACHI NANOHA

BORN 0056 - DIED 0089

_NOT ALL DEVILS ARE EVIL_

_NOT ALL KINGS MEN OF PROSPER_

"What…What is this?" Nanoha shook her head in disbelief. "That's not true! I'm alive! I breathe, I eat! I got cut by the Mariages' blades! The dead don't bleed!"

"_Master…"_

"If I were dead, I wouldn't be sitting here talking right now. If I were dead, my skin would be hard and my limbs stiff like a mannequin's." She swallowed, throat dry and heart pounding an erratic timpani rhythm. "If I were dead, I wouldn't have been able to save Ixy. So why is this here?"

"_Perhaps,"_ Raging Heart began, "_the remnants of the Bureau could not find your body among the wreckage and presumed you had died. It is not uncommon for mistakes to be made after combat is over."_

"So why go through all the trouble in building this monument? Why not put my name on the Tomb of the Unknown if they couldn't find, let alone identify, my remains?"

"_I could not tell you, my Master. It could have been Commander Yagami's decision to make, maybe Lady Vivio's, as she is your next of kin."_

Nanoha laughed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I could've been resurrected. I mean, just because it's unheard of and takes a load of mana to pull off doesn't mean it hasn't happened before. Ixy _is_ called the Flame King of the Dead; she probably tapped in some of that ancient Saint King magic without realizing what she was doing and brought me back from the grave. Wherever my grave is."

"_It is…hard to say, but it is within the realm of possibility."_ The device flickered uncomfortably. "_Anything is possible, Master."_

Nanoha stood and turned away from the obelisk, calling forth Axel Fin. "Whatever the case may be, I'm back. Or maybe I never died in the first place." She shrugged. "I don't know. I just…I don't want to think about it." Not right now. Perhaps not ever. It was like trying to understand where an endless knot started and where it ended, and the thought forced her to stifle a manic giggle. "Let's go. I don't want to be stay here."


	4. Chapter Three - Lessons To Learn

_"She never stopped teaching us. After Riot Force Six was disbanded, even after the war started with the __Großartig Kaiser... Nanoha was always our combat instructor. We were blessed to be her friends and family, we were lucky to be her squadmates. But to us, she was never the White Devil. She was our teacher." _

_-Subaru Nakajima, at the memorial service held for Nanoha Takamachi, TSAB Calendar Year 0089_

**Chapter Three**

**Lessons to Learn**

Ixpellia woke to the smell of roasting meat, an odor that made her stomach rumble and set her mouth to watering. She pushed herself upright just in time to feel the fire rising in her chest. She doubled over again, coughing twice. The offending core dropped to the ground, landing in the loam with a soft tap. The back of her hand wiped across her mouth, and then she realized she could feel eyes upon her.

"Does it hurt?" She glanced up to see Nanoha looking at her from across the fire, concern etched on her features.

Ixpellia felt the heat rising in her cheeks, looking back down at the small green sphere on the ground. "...a little bit. It's not so bad when I'm relaxed, at least. I'm used to it." She picked the core up and rolled it around in her hand for a moment. "The.. jewel seed, you called it? It feels a little different, though. It burns, but it feels... clean."

Nanoha nodded, turning the spit. "Well that's good, at least. It sure looked like it hurt a lot." The woman looked at her again, and Ixpellia knew her face was bright red by now. "...what's wrong?"

"I'm embarrassed! I've never had someone _watch _me produce a Mariage core before!"

"Why is it embarrassing?"

Ixpellia huffed, crossing her arms. "Would you like it if I sat here and watched you ovulate? It's not quite the same thing, but it's close enough."

That got the desired reaction. Nanoha looked away, a faint tinge of pink coloring her cheeks. "It's kind of personal for you. I get it, I get it." The Ace of Aces busied herself with the rabbit she had caught for breakfast, and the next few minutes passed in silence. Ixpellia let her head tilt back to rest against the tree, watching the sky through the trees.

Light, wispy clouds flitted slowly through clear blue. Everything was vibrant and clean, from the air to the leaves on the trees, and even the dirt on the ground seemed fresh. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then let it out. "What time is it?"

"Late morning. You seemed like you needed the sleep, so I didn't wake you." Nanoha took the spit off the fire, setting the rabbit aside to cool for a few minutes. "How did you sleep?"

"Well enough. It was restful. I had a dream, but I can't remember anything of what it was about. It wasn't at all like my long sleeps. Those are just lengths of time gone away. I slip into a... a coma, and when I wake up it's time to make more Mariage." She grimaced, shaking her head, and opened her eyes. "I think I much prefer little naps like this."

That earned her a laugh. "I can believe that." There was a hiss of complaint from the fire as Nanoha started throwing mud on it with her hands, smothering the hot coals underneath a mantle of wet dirt. "So I wanted to ask. Do you remember where you woke up?"

Blinking, Ixpellia nodded. "I remember what it looked like, yes. But I couldn't tell you how to get back there. I was running from them for hours, even before... well, even before they became Mariage."

"Damn. I thought we might have been able to get some answers out of them." Nanoha stomped on the remains with a magic-encased foot, then went to the stream to wash her hands.

"Well then what should we do?" Ixpellia had to raise her voice, wincing a little. It seemed that her throat was still a bit sore from the day before.

"Raging Heart says I can maintain a flight spell as long as I don't push myself very hard, so that will be a lot faster than walking." Ixpellia wondered at the non-sequitur, but held her tongue and waited. Nanoha came back into view after a moment, shaking her hands to get the last of the water off them. There was a troubled frown on her face. "I think something's wrong with my linker core, because I'm not recovering my mana reserves the way I should be. The smartest thing to do would be to find a medical facility so we can both get a check-up. You've got that Jewel Seed in your forehead, after all."

It made sense. Having it mentioned made the Jewel Seed seem to itch in her forehead, and Ixpellia reached up to rub at the glassy-smooth lump. "You're going to carry me, I hope? I can't fly. I never could."

"Mm-hmm. Can't have you walking on those feet until they heal, too." Nanoha bent down to scoop up the cooled rabbit, but paused. Ixpellia could see her staring at the red orb set into the back of her hand.

A moment passed, then another. The woman's pensive expression flickered, and suddenly she was smiling again as she handed Ixpellia the rabbit. "Here you go! Don't worry about me, I caught one earlier while you were still asleep. Eat up, then we'll be off."

* * *

Ixpellia knew what flight was. While incapable of it herself, she had watched flight-capable mages hurl through the air as easily as birds took wing on a breeze. She had been a passenger in flying craft countless times during the warring ages, had looked out at the ground through scrying screens and monitors, and once through an actual window.

But she had never experienced _this. _The rush of the wind rushing through her hair, the immediacy of the air on her face, chilling her skin and invigorating her at the same time. Arms clasped around Nanoha's shoulders, she laughed in sheer delight as the forest canopy sped by hundreds of feet below. Carrying Ixpellia on her back, the Ace of Aces smiled brightly from being able to share the simple joy of flying free with someone who had never done it before.

Nanoha had been right; flying allowed them to cover ground far faster than walking. In the two hours since Nanoha had helped Ixpellia onto her back and lifted into the air, they had covered what surely had to be as much distance as Ixpellia had managed to run from the laboratory over the course of an entire day.

Still, they wouldn't be able to stay in the air for too much longer. Ixpellia could feel that tell-tale tingle deep in her chest, the first warning hints of another core maturing. She leaned in close to Nanoha's ear, having to shout a little over the roar of the wind at their passing. "We should land soon! I'll have to make another core within an hour!"

_"I agree, my master. Your mana reserves are very low. You shouldn't push yourself!"_

Nanoha had started to nod, but frowned at Raging Heart's reminder. "Just a few more minutes and we'll find a place to land!" She accelerated a little more, and it was Ixpellia's turn to frown. Raging Heart had just warned her not to push herself, and here she was striving even harder. All of a sudden, Ixpellia was very keen to get to the ground as soon as possible. _Is she showing off? There's nothing to prove here!_

A few minutes became five, and then ten. Ixpellia leaned in to shout again. "Nanoha, we should really land! I don't want to- eeaaagh!"

She was cut off as Nanoha banked hard to the right, narrowly avoiding a hail of magical bolts and beams that shot up from the forest. They were many different shades and colors, and a small part of Ixpellia's mind couldn't help but think the fusillade of light was beautiful, in its own way. Then the rest of her reminded her that they were being _shot at_, and she started screaming.

The Ace of Aces jinked left, dodging a follow-up shot as she narrowed her eyes and fought for more speed. With a stuttering jolt, Flier Fin cut out, and they started to lose altitude right before an angry red bolt slammed into Nanoha's belly.

The force of the blast threw Ixpellia from Nanoha's back, and they flew apart. Ixpellia's scream became a wail of fear as she tumbled through the air, her world reduced to a sea of green rolling into blue and back to green. She threw out her arms, reaching in vain for the blur of white that was plummeting next to her.

The Ace of Aces shook her head, clearing the dazed look from her eyes. Ixpellia was able to watch as Nanoha rolled aside in mid air, not even bothering with a spell as she dodged a beam attack that would have enveloped her from head to toe. Then Flier Fin reignited, magenta flares blazing from her ankles, and Ixpellia found herself caught up tightly in her arms.

They arrowed away in a controlled dive for the treetops, Ixpellia burying her face in Nanoha's neck and squeezing her eyes shut. She could feel the clamminess of her skin, a cold sweat breaking out as Nanoha forced herself to go faster. The bright light of a barrier formed around them as they plunged into the trees, the sound of snapping branches all Ixpellia could hear. She opened her eyes just in time to see the thick trunk of an evergreen shatter the barrier into shards, and knew no more.

* * *

Everything hurt. Ixpellia groaned as she pushed herself up onto her hands, shaking her head. Nanoha's barrier had taken the brunt of the impact with the tree and saved her from broken bones, but her entire body felt bruised and battered from the tumble down through the branches to the ground.

Next to her, Nanoha was curled on her side with her arms clutched to her chest, shivering violently. Ixpellia crawled to her side, her own pain forgotten. The woman's eyes were squeezed shut, trembling gasps issuing past her lips as she struggled to breathe. Underneath the blackened and tattered remnants of her tunic, her stomach and chest were badly burned; blood and serum leaked through the cracks in her charred skin. _Those blasts were meant to kill, this was lethal magic!_

Shouts echoing through the trees caught her ear, snapping her attention back toward the way they had come. Ixpellia bit her lip, able to make out the barest hints of the words. Their attackers were tracking the two of them down, likely following the impossible-to-miss trail of broken tree limbs they had left behind.

Motion caught her eye, and she looked down to see the Mariage core she had birthed earlier had fallen out of a hole in her makeshift pocket, and was rolling almost merrily across the fallen leaves toward their pursuers. She dove, catching it in her hands and hissing angrily. "No! No more of _you!_ I don't _need_ you anymore, I just... I just need to help Nanoha!"

The shouts and calls were closer now, but still some distance away. She hurried back to the Ace's side, slapping her own cheeks a little to try to drive away the terror. She needed to concentrate. "Okay, okay... you're hurt and you need healing. Healing is something I've... never been able to do." _I've never been able to do anything other than make Mariage, because that took all my magic. But Nanoha says that this Jewel Seed they put in me holds a tremendous amount of power, and... and..._

A blue seeker bolt zipped through the trees, flying over her head and embedding itself in the trunk of a nearby tree. It stayed there, pulsing, and she heard a cry of victory at having found them. Ixpellia winced, touching the jewel in her forehead. "There's no more time! Listen to me, you... Jewel Seed, or lost logia, or whatever you're called! I need to heal Nanoha, and you need to help me! If she can't fight for us, we'll be taken by them, and that's it!"

There was no response, not even a hint of a glow against her hand. Fear rose in Ixpellia's belly, cold and biting. "D-dammit! Stop being so fickle and help me! You're stuck in me now, you're part of me! Help me heal her!" She felt _something_, the faintest flicker of attention, dusting across her thoughts. She grabbed at it, desperately. "Help me make her better!"

The world turned white. Liquid power flared through her head, flowed through her veins and burned the fear away like shadows would flee the light of a torch. The magic thundered into her heart, down her arms, and felt like fire at her fingertips as she laid hands on her protector.

Eyelids fluttered, then opened. Purple eyes stared wide at the ceiling of leaves, a deep breath flowing into no-longer-laboring lungs. Ixpellia choked back a sob of relief, and pulled harder on the clean burn of the Jewel Seed's power.

Color returned to Nanoha's face just as the first buster beam flew through the clearing, missing them by barely a foot and boring a hole through the tree that had stopped their flight. Nanoha sat up scowling and threw out her hand.

_"Protection!"_

Raging Heart flashed from the back of her hand, and the next flurry of bolts and blasts richocheted off into the trees, deflected by the shield spell she summoned. Nanoha staggered to her feet as the first man broke through the underbrush a hundred feet away, and Ixpellia gasped. _Her wounds didn't heal at all!_

The first man stopped a dozen yards away, breathing hard from the chase but laughing as a half-dozen of his comrades came up behind him. They all had the hard-bitten look of scavengers, wearing piecemail clothes and bearing an assortment of weapons. "Well look at that, she's tougher than she looks! I killed the last man I hit with Redshift Ray."

"She sure looks pissed, boss." That from a man in the back, holding a pistol with an oversized barrel. Another chorus of laughs, taunts, and jeers directed at them, and Ixpellia found herself hiding behind Nanoha. It was quite clear what they were planning to do to her once Nanoha was out of the way.

"You all are pathetic!" The laughter cut off as Nanoha glared at them, letting her continue. "Only two of you are even wearing proper barrier jackets, let alone maintaining any sort of defenses! And you four, what are those pieces of crap you're holding? Single-spell shooters? Do you even _know_ how to use your magic, or do you just let a dumb device drain it out of you like some... amateur?!"

Nanoha was just getting started, it seemed, when the leader brought up his rifle-shaped device. "You talk too much for someone about to get beaten, lady! Ruby Bullet, blast her!"

_"Redshift Ray."_ The flat, robotic tone announced the beam attack that had brought them down from the skies, and the furious crimson beam shot forth toward them.

But this time, it detonated impotently against Nanoha's barrier spell. Raging Heart didn't even bother assisting. "And you? You were just lucky you caught me off-guard and tired. Your buster spell wouldn't have bothered my Forwards on their first day of training. My best friend hit me harder than that when we were nine years old!"

"The hell are you getting at, stupid? There are seven of us, and you're about dead on your feet!" The man gestured, and his goons started to spread out.

"What am I getting at?" Raging Heart flashed, and Skirmish Mode's gauntlets flashed into existence around Nanoha's fists. "It's training day, and you seven are about to learn just how far behind you really are."

_"Wide Area Protection."_ Raging Heart held the defense for a solid ten seconds until the incoming fire stopped, then let it drop to reveal the untouched circle of ground where they were standing. Two of the attackers took a step back, glancing at their leader.

Nanoha looked over her shoulder and gave Ixpellia a smile. "They're a bunch of C and D rankers, Ixy. This'll just take a moment."

* * *

The man groaned weakly as Nanoha hoisted him by his collar and tossed him into the pile of unconscious bandits. "Raging Heart? Lock them down for a bit. Two hours should give us plenty of time to leave them behind."

_"Yes, my master! Mass Restrict Lock." _Nanoha turned away even as bands of pink light wrapped around the men, binding them to both the ground and each other.

She stooped to gather up the items she'd liberated from them, bringing them back over to where Ixpellia sat waiting. "Sorry that took so long! Raging Heart can't do much in the way of shooting magic right now, so I had to chase them down one by one. You okay?"

Ixpellia nodded, wiping her mouth on her forearm. A new core glistened in her hand next to the old one. "I'm fine. You didn't get hurt worse, did you?"

Nanoha shook her head. "Not at all. They really were just rabble. I'd have probably had to sit there and let them charge up for them to even have a chance of breaking Raging Heart's automatics." She dropped the bundle onto the ground, sitting next to Ixpellia with a cheerful smile. "I actually feel better than I have since fighting your Mariage yesterday. I mean, everything still hurts, but it's not slowing me down at all."

Ixpellia nodded, concern still written plainly on her face. Eventually, she glanced at the bundle. "What's all that?"

"Oh, just a pair of jackets, some bandages for your feet. Two bare-bones storage devices, four single-spell shooters. You know. Just some things." Nanoha's grin widened as she lifted one of Ixpellia's feet in her hands, spraying the scabs with a disinfectant before wrapping the bandage around it.

"Eeep! That's cold!" Ixpellia squirmed, giggling as Nanoha treated her other foot. "Why didn't you take that one guy's intelligent device? Ruby Bullet, I think he called it?"

"Actual intelligent devices are finicky. For whatever reason, that one likes him, and they tend to not work well for other people if their original owner is still around. I'd rather not deal with it being difficult." Nanoha nodded, and helped Ixpellia shrug on a camouflage-pattern jacket festooned with pockets. Three sizes too large and tailored for a man, she felt like she was wearing a tent, but she wrapped it around herself all the same.

Nanoha stood up, putting on her own jacket to cover the bare remnants of her damaged tunic. Ixpellia dropped both of her Mariage cores into one of her pockets, then zipped it shut with visible relief. "Thank you. This is a lot easier than holding them the entire time."

"I thought it would be. Anyways, I questioned them for a bit, and they said there's a town nearby that they... acquire a lot of their gear from. About an hour's walk due south of here." Nanoha knelt next to Ixpellia to let her climb up on her back, then stood up and took to the air once more.


End file.
